Till Dawn Does Darkness Reign
by TigreRouge
Summary: 11 months passed as Po was away on his Master's Journey; a right of passage for all newly declared Kung Fu masters. Now, he has returned a seemingly different panda with a story that could make even Tigress's skin crawl.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda.

**Till Dawn Does Darkness Reign**

**Chapter 1**

The sky shown bright with red and orange, pink and purple as the sun disappeared behind the distant mountains.  
Atop the thousand steps, the Jade palace seemed to glow in the afternoon light along with its companions, currently sitting in the kitchen, eating dinner and laughing loudly at some joke Mantis had deemed appropriate for the occasion.  
"H-h-he did that?!" Monkey guffawed and Mantis nodded quickly, his arms wrapped around his stomach, "I c-can't believe it! N-no one would be-"  
"Monkey. Mantis."  
All laughter ceased immediately as Master Shifu's voice intruded on the moment. A chorus of "Master" echoed through the room and each warrior stood and bowed, fist-in-palm, in respect for the elderly red panda.  
"I'm glad you're all enjoying yourselves, but I have a surprise to share with you." A smile appeared on his face, much to his students' confusion "Yesterday evening I received notice of a visitor. I neglected to tell you because, honestly, I wanted to see your faces." Shifu chuckled lightly, "He arrived this afternoon, but I have been interrogating him on his travels. I believe you will all be... Slightly shocked." And with that he exited back into the hall, leaving the furious five at the dinner table, confused expressions on their faces.  
"What was that all about?.." Monkey scratched his head, glancing around at his cohorts.  
"I... Don't really know...But he looked pretty happy if you ask me." Mantis replied hesitantly, still staring at the doorway to the kitchen.  
"Well-" Tigress stopped, her ears pricking slightly and her eyes narrowing, "someone's coming." All eyes went to the door, but, as seconds passed, nothing appeared.  
"Are you sure, Tigress?" Crane asked the south china tiger. Her brow rose in annoyance.  
"I-"  
"Hey, guys..." A voice interrupted her and the five warriors turned to see who else had decided to drop in.  
"Oh, my gosh..."  
"Holy crow..."  
"I did NOT see this coming..."  
It was Tigress, though, that finally voiced the name of whom everyone was seeing.  
"Po..."

* * *

As they all stared at him, the panda shuffled uncomfortably, though he still maintained the bright smile on his face .  
"Uhhhh... Hi... Again..." He said nervously, shifting slightly from one foot to the other. Suddenly the tension, so thick only moments before, seemed to melt away. Instantly, four of the furious five tackled the panda to the ground, all laughing in glee.  
"Dude, you're back!"  
"Po, I can't believe it!"  
"It's been too long!"  
Only Tigress remained standing in place, staring at the tangle of warriors in front of her. A shell-shocked look decorated her face.  
"Tigress?" She was taken from her reverie by Po and finally noticed her teammates confused stares and concerned expressions.  
"Uh... It's great to see you, Po... You've changed... I mean, you've-"  
"Nah, nah I get it," the panda laughed jovially, "all travel and kung fu with barely any snack breaks'll really do it to ya." He glanced down at his drastically shrunken stomach and the four surrounding him followed suit.  
"Whoa..."  
"Jeez, Po..."  
"Shit." Everyone turned to Mantis and the bug shrugged, still staring at their black and white friend, "I seriously think that word's just fine for the situation."  
"Well, I can't disagree with you on that, Mantis..." Monkey agreed and Viper glared at him, whipping his elbow lightly with her tail.  
"Master Shifu wasn't kidding when he said we'd be shocked." Crane quickly changed the subject and Po chuckled.  
"Yeah, you should've seen his face when I went to meet him at the Sacred Peach Tree," again he snickered, "'what happened to you panda?!' After he got out of the initial shock, though, he started joking around with me a bit." A dead-pan look replaced the humorous smile on Po's face and he adopted a gruff voice, "'Well, it looks like you've finally lost those 500 pounds we talked about'-" the laughter of his friends interrupted him and he smirked "yeah, guys. Hilarious."  
After a few seconds of comfortable silence, Viper decided to ask the question on all their minds.  
"So-" she grinned, drawing out the word "how'd your master's journey go?" They all turned to the panda, smiling curiously, and he simpered at them, his brow raised coyly. Of course, none seemed to notice his hesitance but Tigress who, in turn, crossed her arms in wait for his answer.  
"Oh it went great. Lots of running, hated that at first, barely any snack breaks, like I said earlier, hated that too, and I got to help a few villages with their bandit trouble, loved that. All in all, it was awesome." Po finished, his mouth still curved in a shy smile.  
"Ooh, what villages? I remember, on my master's journey, I helped this small village called Àikou-"  
"Viper, I believe Po may be tired from his long journey. We should allow him to rest." Tigress interrupted the green tree snake and walked over to help Po to his feet.  
"Oh... You're right, Tigress. Sorry, Po..."  
"No, no, you're fine. How about I tell you guys tomorrow or something- after training, of course."  
"All right. Goodnight." Viper smiled and slithered out of the kitchen door, the other three boys following behind her, all bidding the panda goodnight. Mantis decided one last remark was in order and, as they stepped out into the hallway, he voiced it.  
"Dude, he's totally gonna brag tomorrow about how awesome his journey was- I mean, it lasted, like, five months longer than ours-" the sharp crack of Viper's tail against the bug's exoskeleton sounded from the hall and, with a loudly pronounced "Ow", the four disappeared.  
Once everyone was gone, Tigress placed her paw on her monochromatic friend's shoulder.  
"You've gotten better at lying, but you still need to work on your facial expressions." She commented and Po sighed, turning to smile at her tiredly.  
"Yeah, I figured." He answered and allowed the tiger to lead him to a chair. After a few moments, Tigress spoke again.  
"What's wrong?"  
"Nothing."  
"I know you're lying, Po." He sighed as she stared determinedly at his down turned profile.  
"I... Can't go over this again..."  
"Can't or won't? As far as I know, can't isn't an option."  
"Well it is for me." The panda dead-panned, looking straight into the tiger's eyes; said feline almost gasped at what she saw, but managed to keep her expression mostly stony.  
Behind his usually serene jade irises, bloody torture seemed to reign. Anger, sadness, and confusion all mixed together in a toxic soup of emotions threatening to spill over at any second.  
"What... Happened out there?" She questioned, and he turned away again.  
"Something... Horrible." He answered cryptically, his voice haunted. With that he stood and smiled at her, all traces of pain gone from his eyes.  
"Goodnight, Tigress." He said as he exited the room, leaving the stunned tiger to mull over whatever it was she'd just witnessed.

* * *

**Hey everybody :D hope you enjoyed this first chapter; I'll get back to you soon with another ASAP. Please review. ~TigreRouge**


	2. Chapter 2

**I admit it... I wrote this on my phone. So the format's a little screwy... hopefully the content will make up for that :). Enjoy!**

** Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda. **

2: Till Dawn Does Darkness Reign

Tigress woke before the gong as usual and glanced out of her window at the fading darkness of the night sky. She threw aside her blankets and quietly exited her room, sliding the rice paper door closed behind her. After carefully avoiding all of the creaks in the floorboards throughout the barracks hall, she ran briskly through the courtyard to the training hall, listening cautiously to the night sounds around her.

Her ears pricked as the familiar noise of fists on wood interrupted the serenity of the darkness.

"Who would be up now?" She frowned and ran up to one of the few windows along the training hall, her eyes widening in surprise.

Po was in the midst of the second to last leg of the obstacle course, fists and legs flying in furious kicks and punches.

As she watched, he kicked the head off of a wooden warrior and vaulted it around into another behind him, knocking that one into a third dummy. His arms flew as he blocked the various spiked limbs of other wooden warriors, determination and anger obvious in his movements.

The panda didn't notice when she came through the giant training hall doors, or, if he did, he didn't make any move to greet her. Tigress stepped off to the side and leaned up against a column to watch her friend as he demolished the rest of the obstacle.

Finally he stopped, his body motionless in the midst of the broken, scattered limbs and splinters that littered the floor around him. Tigress watched as he stood in place, breathing hard, eyes closed and, eventually, when she deemed it the appropriate time to go near him, she walked over.

"Po?" She asked as she approached him, her arms crossed. The panda just kept breathing, the small bursts of air becoming more even as the seconds passed.

"Po." Tigress said again, harder this time, but still her friend didn't answer. His angry expression was beginning to fade, his features becoming peaceful as usual.

"Po!" She yelled angrily, stepping up on a piece of wood in front of him, her face mere inches from his.

"Huh..." The panda murmured and his eyes opened slightly, focused on something far away from her... or even the Jade Palace.

"Po..." She said again, tilting her head so their eyes met. Almost as soon as she'd done so, he seemed to snap back into his surroundings, his pupils connecting with hers in surprise. Only then did Tigress realize how close they were. Glad for her orange fur, she quickly backed away so the piece of wood she'd been standing on rested between them.

After a few seconds of semi-awkward silence, the tiger cleared her throat.

"Well... You've destroyed all the wooden warriors." She commented. Po looked around and turned back to her, a sheepish smile curling his lips.

"Um... Yeah, I guess I did... Well, I'll go get the replacements..."

"I'll help."

"Really, Tigress, you should probably get back to bed..."

"No, it's fine." She gazed at her friend calmly, earning a shy smile before they continued on to the storage room.

"So, what really happened on your master's journey?" Beside her, she could practically feel a solid wall building up between her and Po.

"Oh, uh, nothing. Just traveled around China, helped villages and cities and stuff. Pretty much like any other master's journey."

"Why are you lying about this?" She turned to him and thrust out an arm to stop him from walking any further.

"I'm not lying about anything." He answered bluntly, pushing her arm out of the way as he continued on to the storage building.

"Po," Tigress smoothly flipped over his head and landed with her paw on his chest.

"What. Happened?" She asked, locking her stare with his turbulent gaze. The panda finally focused on her, his eyes hard as steel, and once again, he tried to push past the tiger.

"Stop doing that." She growled, frustrated, quickly sidestepping so she was in front of him again.

"Would you- we need to replace the wooden warriors before everyone gets up. Could we just... Do that?" Po's voice was anxious, desperate even, as he looked away from Tigress, around the dark palace courtyard.

"No. I want answers, panda. Why are you avoiding the subject? What happened that's so terrible, even you can't talk about it?"

He sucked in his lips and turned his eyes, again, from his friend, up to the starry night sky. Still, she waited.

"Po-"

"Look," he sighed," I just... I..." He sighed again and looked over at the sacred peach tree, its branches swaying softly in the wind, petals gliding gently to rest on the ground.

"Let's... Go over there." He started toward the cliff and Tigress followed, her eyes narrowed and focused on his downtrodden expression. Once in the presence of the blooming tree, the air around them seemed to settle. It became easier to breath, and, for Po, easier to begin his story.

**Sorry for taking so long to get this up, by the way- holiday season and all, you know :/ :) you gotta love it anyway, though.**


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